If things get tougher?

Margaret54

or one that is working and not vandalised in some areasI heard a lot of noise one night and looked out my window upstairs, and there were a few young ones about 11 0r 12 years old, throwing a large object to break the glass and when i called down to stop it they swore at me and ran away. Where we live is a nice decent place, but I was so annpyed that they were doing this. I rang up about it next day to have the people in charge look at it and they came out brushed the glass up, and replaced it and same thing happened again. I don't know........... Now there is the kind of glass in it which shatters but doesn't fall out? I think it is safer but why not leave it alone to begin with. I quess this could start up another thread.. plenty of stories out there I am sure. Anyway I am digressing here sorry:)

charlies_mum

Did anyone see the Secret Millionair this week. The girl on there was worth £10m, and had always had a mobile phone. She was given the standard benefit amount to live on which worked out at about £8.50 a day. When she wanted to use the phone, the first phone took £1.50 of her money without connecting her, the next phone was for Emergency Calls only, and eventually she found a phone that worked, but had to walk miles to find it

DdraigGoch

I read on an eco reporting site the other day that Stardrops is actually more eco than ecover - news to me, but very welcome news.

http://dnn.ethicalconsumer.org/FreeBuyersGuides/householdconsumables/householdcleaners.aspx

HTH

lauren_1

I do wonder if the 90's and 00's (what ever they call them) are just a spurt in the economy and we head downwards again? The way the economy and markets are heading i would not be supprised in a few years to find us back to the 80's or war time economy.

I do find it odd that there was such an monetary effort for the 1st, 2nd WW and 1st Gulf war yet this one is swept under the carpet in terms of pulling together? Nope brown just borrows and is the top giver to the next major disaster on the other side of the world. Just does not add up.

moanymoany

ceridwen wrote: »

Oh well.....that was that great idea then......shucks! Thanks for that.

Naughty...very naughty....of Ecover to make out they are environmentally-friendly - and then whammy.......one is left wondering by what you say about this...:mad:

Anyone know where to buy those "swisher" thingies then that one can put bits of soap in and swish them round in the washing-up water - instead of using washing-up liquid. I remember them - but dont know if anyone even uses them anymore.

I've only ever seen one of these and that was in 1972 in New Zealand!

You can get books about 'wirework' and I think you can make your own. It is like a little cage - the size of a cake of 'household' soap, with a handle.

Another idea is the little plastic (sorry) bags that oranges come in. Put the bar of soap in it and whoosh it round in the water.

I know I use soap in the shower - it last SO much longer than gels and creams.

I'm just off to Tesco website to see what 'household' soap they sell.

mary43

Oh that brought back memories seeing the soap shaker (the museum one) Mum had one she kept in the kitchen and all the odd bits of soap went in it. Think she used it for washing up the dishes.

Thinking about how our parents used to live...........I've been doing our family history and found that four of my Mums cousins were for a time in the Workhouse after their parents both died quite young, then their granparents took them in. On my home town history site there are a lit if 'memories' written by some of the older folk about what their life was like.......makes interesting, although sometimes quite sad, reading.

ceridwen

Margaret54 wrote: »

We are careful and we save and still enjoy treats and are comfortable fed and warm with no debt now at all, but still it can worry me. If we were to be in hard times in the future we have the skills of making do to hand, as he had a hard childhood too, with very little. It builds your character we both believe.

I have mae doubts about the "character-building". As my mother said to me once (about herself) - "Do I NEED ANY MORE character-building? Havent I had enough?" (I can understand why - as her father died way before she reached adulthood, she had to live through W.W.II, a favourite brother died in that War and she has had to put up with her husband {my father} going through all sorts of illness). I havent had the same "burden" - but I've had more than enough thanks all the same:rolleyes:

So - I personally think that far from hardship being "character-building" it makes you chronically anxious - constantly worrying that something else will come along and "take a whack at you" despite all your precautions and every safeguard you can possibly think of to protect yourself. You DO learn to be very practical - as in being very careful with your health, your money, your choice of company you keep, etc, etc and you will be sitting in one of the most "secure" jobs you can possibly find (if you have to work).

I personally find its not easy to "switch off" and relax - and have had to learn a lot about how to relax and work out a variety of "inner resources". Maybe one doesnt do this so much - if at all - if one has one of those "charmed lives" the odd few people are lucky enough to have - but, no, I'm not convinced on the "character development" front - even though I personally believe we all get born for a reason that we ourselves worked out just before we were born. (Maybe my lesson for this lifetime is to learn how to relax and focus on "more important" things - whatever is happening to the "material" things around me - LOL.)

Sarahsaver

One odd side effect is that my Mum, a war baby - 1938, has been heard telling my kids that cake is 'full of goodness' Must be what she was told, being on rations all her youth. her Dad didn't let them dip biscuits in tea - wasteful! OR have butter AND jam on the same slice of bread, either one or the other not both. this has even passed on to me i do not use butter or margarine when making sandwiches.

mardatha

I think we here. all of us aged around 50, are very lucky. Been through hard times but not gruesomely hard... grown up with personal experiences of our mums & grannies, added to some of our own when our kids were young. I dont think times will ever be as bad as previous generations had, and that a lot of it has to do with your own personal perception of poverty & hard times.

mary43

ceridwen - my Mum also lost a brother she was devoted to during WW11 as well as their mother dying when they were both very young. Various family disputes after grandads second marriage caused Mum to leave home at an earlier age than she maybe would have but with the help of her cousin she got through it somehow. But they were hard times. She met and married Dad during the war, and after me and my brother were born it was Mum who sorted out the buying of the family home. In fact it was Mum who sorted out everything. Hardship may have been character building in many ways and made here a stronger person than she might have been..........she had to be for the sake of all of us. But it also made her a very distant person as a Mum. She was always so busy, knitting, sewing, cooking the next days meal, washing (no mod cons), fetching in the coal so the fire was lit for dad when he came home, helping dad with the garden, visiting gran -5 mile bus journey twice a week, as well as working part time in a factory. It always felt like she had little time for us as children........well in fact she had little time for anything, especially herself.As a result she wasn't the most sociable of people.........she'd never had the time to be. Money was very short, as were many things..............I wouldn't want to live like that at all. I''ve been hard up, very hard up and was able to draw on mums experiences to get through it -and it taught me a lot about living without the 'trappings' of modern life, growing my own veg, stretching one meal into two, sometimes three days and making my own clothes from someone elses. But I'm trying desparately to be positive about the future and hope we don't end up turning the clock back.
Life deals enough knocks without any more I think.